UCLA avoids road block

PULLMAN, Wash. – OK, now UCLA's football players can look ahead to their game Saturday against rival USC.

They certainly don't want to look back.

As pretty as the result was for the Bruins, what happened here Saturday night otherwise was unsightly, UCLA beating a deflated and defeated Washington State team pretty much every way possible.

The final score was 44-36. It wasn't that close.

Freshman quarterback Brett Hundley passed for 261 yards and three touchdowns. UCLA blocked two field goals and two punts. The Bruins' defense scored twice.

Tied 7-7 after one quarter, UCLA strung together 30 unanswered points in the second quarter to empty the stands and drain the game of any suspense.

The Bruins (8-2, 5-2) remain atop the Pac-12 South. They can clinch a berth in the conference title game with the victory over USC at home. If the Trojans win Saturday, they'll advance to the Pac-12 final.

So, as if this rivalry needed more fuel, there's now a championship bid awaiting the winner.

Entering this game, the theme for the Bruins was focus, focus on the now, on the immediate, on the Cougars.

UCLA was coming off an emphatic victory over Arizona, 66-10, and everyone kept reminding the Bruins what was looming, a Trojans team that has proven to be beatable.

There was a danger attached to this game for UCLA, particularly playing at night, against a wounded opponent with nothing to lose and with the temperature dipping into the low 20s.

The Bruins successfully avoided that danger, gaining a victory and no apparent new injuries.

They didn't run the ball well, but they didn't have to. They had a red-zone fumble and failed to convert a fourth-and-short. Didn't matter, either.

The Cougars (2-8, 0-7) had the game's first possession, but it ended with the Bruins scoring the game's first points.

Sheldon Price returned a blocked field goal 68 yards to put UCLA up less than five minutes into the game. The 39-yard attempt by Andrew Furney was swatted by Datone Jones, who broke through the middle of Washington State's line and practically smothered the ball.

The Cougars' next drive led to another Furney field-goal attempt, this one from 33 yards. This time, Cassius Marsh blocked the kick, keeping the score 7-0.

The Bruins' third blocked kick of the first quarter – Jordan Zumwalt's punt block – set up the offense at the Washington State 10-yard line. Johnathan Franklin, however, fumbled on the first play, returning the ball to the Cougars.

WSU then put together another impressive series, this one reaching the end zone when Connor Halliday passed six yards to Dominique Williams.

At that point, with 34 seconds left in the first quarter and the score even at 7-7, Washington State had run 27 offensive plays to UCLA's five. The Cougars also had a 12-1 edge in first downs.

The game then turned so suddenly and convincingly that whiplash could have been a concern.

Finally able to get their offense on the field and into a flow, the Bruins seized control. Hundley passed 16 yards to Franklin, nine yards to Joseph Fauria and 10 yards to Devin Fuller for touchdowns.

Linebacker Anthony Barr gave the Bruins two more points when he sacked Connor Halliday in the end zone.

Another sack, this one by Marsh, resulted in a fumble that Eric Kendricks picked up and returned 40 yards for a touchdown, making it 37-7 at the half.

The remainder of the game basically was an exercise in one team trying to avoid injury and the other embarrassment.